Summary of Allegations Against Father John J. Delli Carpini:

According to the 2005 Grand Jury Report, Father John Delli Carpini was accused of abuse of two youths over a period of several years both before seminary and after ordination. He was initially placed on leave in 1998 and then returned to duty. However, he was placed on leave again in 2002.

The report also details how that in 1998, Father John J. Delli Carpini began writing homilies and speeches for Cardinal Bevilacqua. He also became a writer in the Cardinal’s Communications Office, working for its director, Catherine Rossi, and helping to represent the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s views during a time that sexually abusive priests were becoming a national scandal. He did so even though, as Cardinal Bevilacqua well knew, Father Delli Carpini had just a few months before admitting to molesting a 13-year-old boy from his first assignment at Saint Luke the Evangelist in Glenside. Cardinal Bevilacqua tried to conceal his association with Father DelliCarpini and also made sure that the priest kept quiet his authorship of the Cardinal’s homilies and pronouncements. This arrangement continued until March 2002.

Before writing for Cardinal Bevilacqua, Father Delli Carpini taught at Roman Catholic High School and was a dean at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary for 12 years. The molestation he admitted began in 1977 when the boy was an 8th-grader in Saint Luke’s parish; it continued for seven years. When the victim informed the Archdiocese of Philadelphia of his abuse in 1998, he also reported that he had seen Father Delli Carpini in the act of molesting a 15-year-old, and had walked in on the priest as he appeared to be preparing to abuse an 8-year-old boy. Cardinal Bevilacqua permitted Father Delli Carpini to continue in ministry anyway and to live in a parish rectory. He did so after receiving a psychological evaluation reporting “a sexual disorder and a severe personality disorder.” Attempting to justify these decisions to the Grand Jury, the Cardinal testified that he generally relied on the advice of therapists to decide whether a priest guilty of abuse should be given an assignment. According to the report the documents in Father Delli Carpini’s file, however, show that it was Cardinal Bevilacqua who made the initial determination to keep him in ministry. The therapists, who worked for the Archdiocese, then tailored the priest’s treatment to fit the Cardinal’s decision.

DelliCarpini was laicized in 2005. He is still living and is believed to be residing in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, area. He is 69 years old.

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Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in Pennsylvania, contact our office today. Although many years have passed, those abused by Catholic clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia now have legal options to recover damages due to a compensation fund created for victims.

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